PREFACE.

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From the beginning of the world to the
present day, the sober-minded and thinking
part of mankind have regarded prayer
as a duty of high importance. The wise
have considered it as strengthening that
sense of dependence, those sentiments of
gratitude, of reverence, and of love, which
are due from the creature to the bountiful,
ever-present, all-perfect Creator:--as exciting
our benevolence towards those with
and for whom we pray,--and as awakening
a right sense of our own sinfulness and infirmity.
The conscientious have esteemed
it as a duty enforced by the express command
of God. The pious have found it a
privilege, conveying joys and honours which
the world knoweth not. Its blessed influence
is not confined to the sunny hours of
life, when every pulse is health and every
scene is pleasure. Thousands have attested
that it can pour upon the season of sickness,
of poverty, of reproach, and of death,
not flashes of momentary rapture merely,
but calm, enduring, ineffable joy.

Before it can accomplish such effects, it
must have become not only "the form of
sound words," but the utterance of the
heart; not an occasional resort in difficulty
or distress, but the settled habit of the soul.
To assist the young in the attainment of
this most precious habit, is the design of
the following compilation. Let it not be
supposed that it is meant to supersede the
use of larger or more judicious manuals;
much less to prescribe set forms of prayer;
and least of all to represent these few extracts
as comprising the whole, or even any
great number, of those parts of Scripture,
which are suitable for devotion. My intention
is only to offer specimens of the
manner in which the language of devotion
may be extracted from the inspired writings;
in the earnest hope that the beauty,
simplicity, and suitableness of the expressions,
may allure my young friends to
drink deep of the pure fountain, from
which this is but a scanty stream.

I solemnly warn them against considering
the following examples,--or any other
form of words, even though drawn from
the oracles of the living God,--as sufficient
of themselves to constitute a prayer acceptable
to the Almighty, or useful to the
souls of men. God is a Spirit, and they
who worship him must worship him in
spirit. No prayer deserves the name, which
is not the overflowing of a humble, penitent,
and obedient heart; nor can any be
accepted of God, which is not made in a
lowly sense of our own unworthiness, offered
to him in the name of a crucified Redeemer.

Therefore let every act of devotion be
preceded by a sincere and earnest endeavour
to awaken in ourselves dispositions
suitable to prayer. Before praise, let us
rouse our minds to contemplate the perfections
of Jehovah: lest we incur the guilt of
those who honour him with their mouths,
while their heart is far from him! Before
thanksgiving, let us call to mind his benefits;
lest an empty form of gratitude, where
the sentiment is wanting, be an offence to
the Searcher of hearts! Before confession,
let us strive to awaken our hatred to our
own particular sins; lest a careless catalogue
of transgressions, which we intend not to
forsake, seem but an audacious braving of
Him, who is of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity. Before petition, let us humbly
consider the urgency of our necessities,
and the feebleness of our claims; lest, in
begging that without which we perish, we
come short of the earnestness and importunity
to which the Lord has promised his
blessing.

In prayer, as in acts of less importance,
practice, though by no means sufficient, is
necessary for the attainment of perfection.
Those who are but beginners in this holy
art find it difficult, perhaps impossible, to
fix their minds in a protracted act of devotion.
The following examples therefore
are short; not from any intention to confine
the aspirations of the devout heart, but
that such as are pleased to take the assistance
of this little book, may have opportunities
of pausing when the attention grows
languid; and of reviving it by turning to
some kindred subject, more consonant to
the feeling of the moment.

We know not what to pray for as we
ought; and, as we have the gracious assurance
that the Spirit helpeth our infirmities,
I prefix a prayer for the assisting and
directing influences of the Holy Ghost.
God grant that it may so be used as to
call down upon the worshipper the same
Spirit which at first gave it utterance!

My dear young friends! (for the intention
of doing you a kindness warms my
charity towards you,) it is no solitary recluse,
no surly misanthrope, no fanatic, no
enthusiast, who addresses you; but a woman
in the prime of life, as cheerful, as
happy, though perhaps not quite so gay, as
most of you--active in the business, alive
to many of the pleasures, of the present
state of existence. But her chief business,
as well as yours, is to extend the kingdom
of God in her own heart, and in those of
others; and if she shall be made the instrument
of attracting even the least of her
brethren to that service which is perfect
freedom, she will at once give and receive
pleasures, which excel all those of a present
world, as far as the capacities of angels exceed
those of the babe that was born this
hour.

This presentation of Emmeline. With Some Other Pieces., by Mary Brunton
is Copyright 2003 by P.J. LaBrocca.
It may not be copied, duplicated,
stored or transmitted in any form without written permission.
The text is in the public domain.